


Fractured

by Azei



Series: The Life & Times of Cassandra of Troy [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Anger, Angst, Broken Families, Canonical Character Death, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Child Death, Complicated Relationships, Curses, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Forced Pregnancy, Heavy Angst, M/M, No Incest, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Violence, Prophecy, Prophetic Visions, Resurrection, Temporary Character Death, Therapist Cassandra of Troy, Therapy, Unhealthy Relationships, they aren't the second coming of Jamie and Cersei, when it concerns Cassandra and Helenus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24599527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azei/pseuds/Azei
Summary: She wasn't broken - she's not. She isn't broken and there is nothing to fix. Cassandra is not broken.
Relationships: Apollo/Cassandra (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), one sided relationship - Relationship
Series: The Life & Times of Cassandra of Troy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790182
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	Fractured

**Author's Note:**

> This is a direct sequel to Ripped From Death's Embrace

* * *

Her past wasn't something she thought of often- she pushes down her memories and lives each day through a decaying body and campers who never believe a word she says and a cabin full of children who look like _him_ before he condemned her to a life of misery and pain but look at her with pity and themselves with shame and disgust.

But sometimes...sometimes the memories squeeze by before she can stop them and then she's gone, lost in the memory of time from before.

* * *

It wasn't anything new.

Like clockwork, her life went round and round and she went through the motions with her shoulders drawn up tense and her eyes darting around her; _looking searching scanning_ for the usual signs. She woke up as the first rays of dawn filtered through her balcony- **mocking** her very existence with its brilliance, **taunting** her, **reminding** her of life from before.

She would get up and go about her day as if she couldn't feel the stares at the back of her head. As if she didn't hear the whispers or that each word dug into her skin like a brand. The words would filter through her head on replay and no matter what she did they never left her head. Always cycling through- thousands of voice blending and screaming together threatening to swallow her whole.

Sometimes, if she pretends that's she's normal, that her very soul hadn't been branded with a curse that ruined her life and everything she cared for, then she can get away without any confrontation from her family... but some days... some days she isn't so lucky.

It wasn't simply having prophetic dreams and visions whenever she wanted. They happened at random at any time of the day no matter what she is doing or where she happens to be.

It, unfortunately, makes it very hard for her to avoid the wrath of her family.

* * *

"Why can't you just be normal for once in your life Cassandra!?"

"Why can't you shut your mouth?"

"Why can't you be more like your brother Helenus?"

"Why do you always lie Cassandra?"

"Why can't you just stop it?"

"You're only making things worse."

"I wish you weren't my daughter."

"I wish you would be normal."

"Why do you torment us so Cassandra?"

"Cassandra, leave my presence at once."

"I don't want to look at you anymore!"

"Cassandra!"

* * *

They were screaming at her again. It wasn't in private nor was it out of sight from the servants or guards. The setting for today's confrontation proceeded to take place in the Great Hall during dinner. Her whole family was there.

Her mother and father and her twin and her older brothers and so many other relatives were there. Some were glaring at her as if it was her fault that her father decided to break the tense silence that had befallen the room with their daily screaming matches. Others were staring down at their plates- looking far away from her. As if the sight of her might incur the king's wrath.

"They are prophetic visions and dreams! It doesn't just turn off!" she yelled back at him.

Her mother snorted loudly into her wine and, unhelpful, chimed in, "Those so-called ' _visions_ ' of yours are just fallacies, darling." 

A tense silence had overtaken the room at her mother's words- everyone held their breaths and looked away from her gaze. The sudden clattering of metal hitting the stone floor and her father banging his fists on the wooden table made everyone jump. Then her father spoke, an icy undertone in his voice and his face harder than stone.

"You might once have had the sight, my daughter, but it is broken. You are broken!" 

The world around her had gone deathly silent as her father's words rang through her ears.

It was quiet.

Still.

A type of calm she wasn't used to. It was the same kind of quiet she heard before something bad happened, a stillness that forebode the end. That sense of _wrongness_. A type of feeling that no one could fix. Not her mother, not her brothers, not Helenus or her father or even the gods. Not even Zeus himself. It was a type of wrong that could never be undone.

**_And it terrified her._**

It's all she could hear. A silence that overtook her ears and filled his existence with a sense of nothingness. It permeated the room, taking up every single nook and cranny that it could find. 

Then she heard it. It was faint but it was there.

It was getting louder.

The ringing.

It was like an explosion, one that went off in her ears over and over and over again and she closed her eyes in pain. It was getting to be too much. Flashes of memories, of events, of bright lights, of noises and people ran through her mind a million miles an hour. Faces, eyes brights and smiles wide as they flew through her mind. 

It wouldn't stop. The ringing. Just kept getting louder and louder and louder until all she could hear was the silence. She felt dizzy and the pounding in her chest matched the ringing in her ears.

It was like a battering ram against her. Her vision went blurry and she snaps her eyes shut, willing the tears to subside and bends her head down as she tries to breathes. Tries to think but she can't. She can't because its- it's too much! It's too much and it's not enough and its everything in between and beyond. 

_They were never going to change._

She doesn't know when the thought struck her but it did.

They were never going to go back to that once happy family they were. The one where her mother would sing her to sleep and her father would call her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and her brothers would look her in the eye and her people adored her. No. It was always going to be scorn filled looks and disgusted tones and harsh words and hateful people. They were always going to be like this.

It was too late for her and even if the curse was broken tomorrow- the damage was done. She was as good as dead to them- the Cassandra of Troy from before didn't exist anymore and to them, the Cassandra that she was wasn't the one they wanted.

A gut-wrenching sob wants to pull itself up from her throat and makes her want to scream herself hoarse. Tears welled up in her eyes and she slammed her fist into the table startling everyone around her. 

Her voice was quiet when she spoke, "I thought you would be different but it is always the same. You never believe me. No matter what words flow freely from my mouth you will always look at me as if I am a stain upon the word. As if I tarnish your good name by merely existing." She looks up at them with tear-filled eyes hidden behind her satin veil and her fists clenched.

"There are a lot of things wrong with me I will freely admit that _**father**_ ," she snarled." but you can't do anything about that. You can't change it. You can't fix me because I am not broken - I don't need to be fixed. I am me and I am never going to be enough for you. For any of you. I will always be worthless because I am a woman and in the eyes of the people of my kingdom I am crazy because of a curse put on me for which you do not believe in." She had begun pacing halfway through her rant.

She gripped her hair as she sobbed," I have always tried to be enough for you but no matter what I always see the disappoint in your eyes mother. I see the disgust of others. The hatred from my own father. The pity of strangers. I am being punished because I would not break my virginal vow. It is the one thing in this wretched existence that I've done right as a princess and woman of your household and yet I am punished for it." Her voice cracks at this and she can see her twin reach out for her but she ignores him.

"I am beaten for it. I have food thrown at me from beggars and slaves alike. Mothers shield their children and men try to force themselves on me because they believe that I am crazy and that no one would take my word because of that. And the frightening thing is- you wouldn't. You wouldn't lift a finger, would you father?" her voice is broken and her family stares at her, shock evident on their pale faces.

She tore her veil off her head and bared her curse for all to see, "Look at me! LOOK AT ME!" She knows what they see when they look at her eyes and she wishes it hadn't come to this for them to realize that she wasn't crazy- then again this all might be a moot point in the end. Even if it was, well then, at least she tried. 

Her eyes, usually a soft brown, were a blazing yellow. They shone in the darkened room and were brighter than any candle. The veins around her eyes were hot to the touch and pulsed like magma on her face. This is the weight she bears whenever her curse came into effect. For hours after she utters a prophecy, they will glow like twin suns. 

Her skin will crack like dry earth and the veins in her face will throb with light. Her tears come out black as night and they burn her skin as they trail down her cheeks. They leave a trail of fire in their wake and the scars of her face never have enough time to heal.

"This! This is the so-called curse you don't believe I have! Look at what he did to me!" she screams at them. "Look at what your **precious** _Apollo_ did to me! He **cursed** me! This is what he did to me! LOOK AT ME!"

"I am," a voice calls out and she whirls around in her anger to see _him,_ standing there without a care in the world and looking at her as if she was the one at **fault** for what she's done. **As if the curse was entirely** _her_ **fault and not** _his_.

The room is silent as the two of them stare at each other and a wave of burning anger fills her at the sight of him. He hasn't changed a day since she last saw him. His hair was golden and beautiful and his eyes were bluer than the sky he raised his sun across. His skin is still as she remembers it- unblemished and tanned and so soft looking.

Compared to her with her ragged hair and wild eyes and shaking shoulders, he looks every part of the god that he is. And she looks more like a common whore or maybe even a slave what with her appearance.

She is startled to hear his voice, still smooth and baritone just like she could hear in her memories, "They will forget this entire conversation happened. I will modify their memories and erase every single thought that occurred, every memory, every sight and feeling they had when you started this little rant of yours. When you took off your veil." he acts so nonchalantly as if the words he revealed weren't the very thing she despised more than anything in this world.

She falls to her knees, heedless of the weakness it shows in front of him, and weeps for the chances she lost. For the relief that is taken from her. As if she hasn't lived in this hell for over a decade and now the slightest bit of relief has been banished far away by the very man she loathes.

"Why... haven't you taken enough from me? You've taken my home, my friends, my family and my people. You've taken my standing and my vows. You've taken love and the belief my people felt for me. You've taken everything."

"I could not take away what was freely given but I can manipulate it. I can make your life miserable. I have and I intend to continue until the day you breathe your last breath. You made a fool of me in my own temple. You took freely from me but did not return the favour." he angrily states.

She glares up at him, her eyes burning like the sun he ferries across the sky each morning, and he takes a step back at the unexpected sight, "You did that to yourself! You knew I had taken a virginal vow, one I swore on your sister and Styx herself! WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM ME APOLLO! What did you expect to happen if I had broken it? Did you think I would walk away freely and we would be happy? That somehow I wouldn't immediately die the moment I decided to break that vow?" she cried at him.

"I was devoted to you because you were my patron. I was your friend because you were mine. I loved you as I should have as your priestess and friend- but I was never in love with you and you knew this for a fact. It doesn't take asking Aphrodite herself to know this. You knew this and you still gave me that gift. As if it would change the outcome." her voice was hoarse from all the yelling she had done.

Apollo didn't say anything for a moment and then he marched forwards and knelt before her. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at the hardened blue eyes she had loved so much before but had come to abhor with a passion over the years. "Don't delude yourself any further; you are broken. And I will continue to break you until you reach my uncle's domain and even then you will never be free of me."

He bends down and presses a kiss onto the temple of her head and for a moment she finds herself back all those years ago before it went all so horribly wrong and then Apollo leans down to her ear and his voice, while soft and tender, is ruined by the next words that come out of his mouth, "I promise you this, Cassandra of Troy, death will not break my curse." 

* * *

She is shaken from her memories as the sun hits her face from her window. It signals the dawn of a new day and it mocks her in all its brilliance. She breathes in deeply and murmurs to herself as she pushes down the sob that wants to break free form her throat, "I am not broken. I am not broken. I am not broken. I am not broken."

Her glowing eyes betray her words but she is too far gone in her own head to notice.


End file.
